Steve Rockstein

Former social worker, baker and national award-winning photojournalist, Steve Rockstein is the owner/chef of Chef’s House on St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, which offers charming accommodations and inspired Vegan, Vegetarian and Macrobiotic cuisine. Email:  steve@chefshouse.vi

Heavy Weather - by Steve Rockstein

Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son ?
And where have you been my darling young one ?
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I've walked and I've crawled on six crooked highways
I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests
I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans
I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.  -Bob Dylan, 1962  Read more

If God gives you a choice between cancer and diabetes, pick cancer.  Believe me, by comparison, it’s a cakewalk.  Okay, I understand how offensive that sounds to anyone who has suffered from or lost someone to cancer.  And I am sorry.  Truly.  Please allow me to explain.  Read more

Picture this.  I’m on a slow-moving checkout line at the market… daydreaming.  This is not my favorite space to shop, a big-box warehouse with ugly lighting and uninformed help, but it’s the only place here on St Thomas where I can buy organic Italian olive oil, in real glass, at a reasonable price… so I deal with it.  Read more

    It happens a lot, often after one of our signature ‘Dinner-on-the-Deck’ extravaganzas. As the wine flows and the artful bounty of whole foods slowly disappears, one of our guests at Chef’s House, my little guest house on St. Thomas, will take a deep breath in, turn to me and say, “You know…this has always been my dream… to live on an island… and open a Bed & Breakfast…”  Read more

‘…A loaf of bread, a jug of wine, and thou…’
–from The Rubaiyat by Omar Khayyam


In my last blog I wrote about wine and the one before that, bread, so now its time for thou.  As in ‘How art thou?’  Really.  Before you answer, I want you to reconsider your lifestyle.  Yes, really.
That’s what I did.  I spelled it out, one letter at a time and before I knew it, I had my very own LIFESTYLE acronym.  Sounds silly, I know.  But it focused me, very clearly, on the way I live my life and what my real priorities are.  This may seem like over thinking it to some, but both of my parents died from lifestyle diseases (Type II diabetes)… so yeah… I do think about it a lot.  Maybe you should too.  Making your own anagram is way more fun than burdening your brain with more phases like ‘…I should do more blah, blah, blah…’  Really.  Read more